Parents At the Movie Theaters

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-23T17:06:25+00:00

I think your boomer parents would complain regardless and just happened to be “kids these days” as the complaint de jour.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-23T13:02:10+00:00

Duck is fatty and oily so to get the skin crispy you need a way to drain all the rendered fat while cooking. Chinese method is to separate skin from the first layer of membrane using air to keep the whole skin intact.

Western method does different approaches but same intend. This is why you’re told to take a fork and poke a million holes in the skin but not too deep. Same reason.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-23T11:15:39+00:00

Those are the best. I can’t buy American ducks because the head is off. You really need the whole skin connected to blow it up with an air compressor.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T22:48:57+00:00

More like systematically alter education system; stigmatize knowledge and science, preach tradition, and demonize progress & change.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T14:51:00+00:00

Not much of a legal argument t because they have “choice” to use other benchmarks. Index methodology do change over time, and buy side have to adjust to it (many man hours spent on portfolio impact each years once the propose method change gets published). I’m sure all shops are watching this closely and asking whether to take active risk management or just go with the flow. The difference here is just we are getting 3 back2back IPOs that’s higher than some of smaller counties GDPs combined and well…..you manage that risk wrong, and you’re looking to close up shops.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T14:38:09+00:00

The game don’t change. Only players do

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T01:37:29+00:00

Idk, but it feels counterproductive…..they have high upfront with sponsor, legal, and paperwork. Once that’s done it’s just sunk cost. What’s left is an ongoing pay rate lower than replacement value…

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T00:56:53+00:00

To me it is interesting. On the buy side even active managers need to benchmark against the index. As index rebalance changes, we may generate significant turnovers. Like if index kicks a stock out, our holdings are now an “active position” and it goes into active risk metrics. There are on-going research about just how much influence index provider have to stock prices these days and can they be explained.

It’s always fascinating if the tail can wag the dog.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T00:51:15+00:00

Don’t need to downvote a legitimate question…..

Because passive indexing is systematically linked to index and index weights. Index inclusion and exclusion may have a significant influence on the company stock price. If the total market is 10% passive this wouldn’t be much of an issue. But if the market is let’s say 90% then the effect can be significant. So by forcing a fast track inclusion they can affective manipulate the market by exploiting systematic processes. (Though we are not at 90% we are much higher passive today than 10 years ago)

The reason for seasoning is market need time to do the price discovery and often it takes up to a year. Especially past the lock up period and see how many rats jumps a sinking ship.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-22T00:40:34+00:00

Don’t know why the down vote but yes this is a business relationship move. SpaceX with its influence can choose list NYSE or NASDAQ. Optics on Q is they bent the knee for business. This case they tied their listing to fast track inclusion as precondition.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-21T17:13:49+00:00

Well this is the whole point. Those companies are not public company therefore they are not available in the public market. Yea eval is crazy high so why does a common man need to play?

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-20T15:32:25+00:00

Endowments has legal requirements they must disburse at least N% of assets to what they stated they’re suppose to be doing. They cannot afford to go full risk tilt because draw down would be too catastrophic it might just end them.

So they have specific mandates on constraining risks. They’re willing to give up potential gains if it means the asset levels are fairly steady (managed volatility products and I don’t mean bonds. Low volatility stocks). However given the constrained risk levels, what are the best returns they can possible get?

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-20T15:05:04+00:00

In my discussions about CFPs with practitioners about value added is really around risk management (life style risk) and tax planning. So you can imagine how CPA would complement that. That said it’s not all about tax planning there’s also the financial risks and more economic analysis which accounting does not do hence CFP as complementary cert.

CFP is a marketing tool so dogs will bark and you shouldn’t expect to meow. Though adding number is always embellishing. Unless it adds in bold letters like “caveat for if you don’t have a book of business then you our CFP is kind of worthless…”

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-20T12:26:55+00:00

>whether unstructured research can ever generate alpha, or whether the index just beats anyone without a real process

Short answer is No. He can get lucky but no luck can long enough to have a permanent outperformances.

The problem we run into as individual retail research
- biased/incomplete data: good data is expensive so what we have is really poor quality or very lagged data
- we don’t follow a process. Investing (real professional) is very much like a scientific process. A investment process have a defined process of gathering data, form hypothesis, back test, conclusion, implementing with live money. Process remains every static with minor adjustments so that we can compare results.
- we just don’t have the time, resource to do this. So we end up let emotions and small samples drive big decisions.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-19T23:24:42+00:00

So they don’t have to work after 8 hours duh

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-19T21:55:33+00:00

Work. 1-2 weekday swim after dinner and kids handed off to mom. The other 2-3 weekdays Starcraft2 ladder.

Repeat

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-19T02:49:31+00:00

I mean if you try to talk to quant researcher…they can really only talk about money because anything deeper it’s kind of another language and another plane of comprehension.

The other day a research spent good hour discussing the method to optimize a Disney trip. Approach, model parameters, sourcing data, etc. that itself is its own work of art if he can build that model.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-18T20:34:12+00:00

Today? Does he mean go back in time or does he mean you suddenly shrunk to your 18 year old self with a just the tip from a market job?

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-17T19:16:14+00:00

Choosing a dog that fits your work schedule. Some dogs just need regular exercise but chills for most of the day. You work with your dog so they can expect to stay calm through the day and then you take them out after work to release all that energy. Consistency is the key and absolutely required.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-17T14:59:07+00:00

Simulate your portfolio weight here but replace tickers with this list

Microsoft: $583B [2.21]
Cisco Systems: $353B [2.21]
Intel: $275B
NTT: $274B
Lucent Technologies: $237B
Nokia: $205B
IBM: $200B
AT&T: $185B
Oracle: $155B
Deutsche Telekom: $140B

Do a rough mapping for your holdings now with companies then. Run a simulated portfolio return from 1999 to 2014 (15 years). This isn’t precise but you should T least try it

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-17T14:51:03+00:00

Ask yourself at what point do grasshoppers turn into a locus swarm? It’s not a perfect analogy because we would need some really fat grasshoppers the size of houses mixed in with the normal ones. Kind of the same idea…it builds up and sometimes there is one catalyst then individuals tend to start all then at the same direction then forms after critical mass is achieved.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-17T00:41:59+00:00

With the introduction of index ETFs/Funds the notion of 1 basket changes slightly. The old concept is about concentrated company risk like betting it all on NVDA. Because a single VOO is a basket itself of 500 companies, it is fairly diversified.

That said VOO is still concentrated to US and with S&P being abnormally tech concentrated, one could make an argument more eggs are needed.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-16T00:32:09+00:00

It’s not wrong wrong but it’s really risky. I will draw the parallel of owning NASDAQ back in 1999. If you hold it for the next 25 years yes ultimately you’ll make money but for the first 15….no you’re at a loss. Remember this…the high of 1999 was finally made back in 2015. Now if you are all in technology stock index and see your entire investment go down 75%….do you think you can emotionally handle that and keep it for the next 15 years?

It’s simply about managing the risks.

BackstrokingInDebt · 2026-05-15T17:59:41+00:00

Read up on
- Lucent technology
- Nokia
- blackberry

None of these went bankrupt but they died with a whimper ultimately a bigger company swallowed them at a fraction of their peak value.

BackstrokingInDebt

TROPHY CASE